Something About Snowflakes
by Landlady of the Universe
Summary: One shot. A younger Sesshoumaru. Lots of snowflakes. And the priestess of this tiny village known as Edo…


Something about Snowflakes

By Landlady of the Universe

**Summary**: One shot.  A younger Sesshoumaru.  Lots of snowflakes.  And the priestess of this tiny village known as Edo…

**Genre**: Random fluff!  Run for your lives!  
**Rating**: PG  
**Spoilers**: Up through about episode … 3.  
**Disclaimer**: If I owned Inu-Yasha, I wouldn't have to take finals now would I?  
**A/N**: I liiiive!  Yea, I know, I haven't written anything in IY for a while.  **This is all Sandra's fault!  **That is all.

Why was he here again?

There was something about the winter that made him strangely sentimental.  Perhaps in was, in part, because of the memories he had of the season, back when he was still little.  Before his brother had been born.  Playing in the snow with his parents, the three of them together as a family.  The few times they had acted as a family were these sparse moments in the dead of winter.

About this time every year, just after the first snow, he would send away Jaken – the little toad always put him in a bad mood anyway – and set out for a stroll.  A stroll that usually lasted at least a week.  Left to his own devices, the demon lord would usually spend the time admiring things that he usually ignored.  The brilliance of the sunrise.  Steam rising from hot springs that formed figures in the mist, if you looked closely enough.  He always went somewhere different, exploring the vast natural beauty that Japan had to offer.

But he still wasn't quite sure how he'd ended up here.

Sesshoumaru looked up at the giant sentinel tree that guarded this forest.  A giant vine, thicker than his wrist was beginning to grow around the solitary figure that hung from the tree by one thin, magical arrow.

"You fool," he told Inu-Yasha, knowing the boy couldn't hear him.  "Father warned you that you could never change what you were, but would you listen?  Of course not."  Despite his normal feelings towards his brother, Sesshoumaru's voice carried no anger, nor did he feel any.  It had to be the weather.  Winter always made him strange.

The demon lord turned away.  There was really no reason to be here.

A girl, human, stood not three meters away.  No, she was not exactly a girl, but barely into womanhood.  She wore the red hakama and white gi of a priestess and carried a bow and arrow as though she knew how to use it.  "Who are you?" she demanded, her voice as clear and cold as the air around them.

He was amused.  Did she truly think that she could defeat him, with only a bow and arrow?  "Who are you?" he countered smoothly.

Her pert lips tugged down at the corners into a stern frown, "I am the priestess of this village, my name is Kaede.  What business have you in Inu-Yasha's forest?"

Inu-Yasha's forest?  The boy would be proud of that, wouldn't he?  Sesshoumaru amused himself by giving her a slight bow, respectful but not humble.  "I have none.  I am merely passing through.  My name is Sesshoumaru, the Lord of the Western Lands."

Her eyes narrowed.  "You're a demon."

So now she was figuring it out.  Without warning, she raised her bow and fired directly at his heart.  Without a second though, he reached up, catching the arrow mid-flight.  The momentum, however, continued to carry it forward, only stopping when the tip grazed his armor.  The demon looked down in surprise.  She was strong, this woman.  He released the arrow, only to notice that the magic had singed the sensitive flesh of his palm.

When he looked up, she had another arrow on the string, ready to fire.  He held up a hand, "Peace.  I mean you no harm."

She watched him for a moment, suspiciously, before nodding and releasing her arrow, putting it carefully back in the quiver.  "Forgive me.  All the demons I've ever met have been trying to kill us.  I have heard of demons that are kind to humans though."

"Do not mistake me for one of those," he was quick to warn her.  "If it suited me to kill you, I would not hesitate.  It doesn't.  Therefore, I allow you to live."

She watched him, silently, for a long while, before her slender shoulder lifted in a slight shrug.  "I … see," she said slowly, though it was obvious she didn't.  Noticing his hand, she added, "Please, allow me to dress that."

Sesshoumaru looked down, having already forgotten the wound.  "It will heal."

"I insist.  It's the least I can do."

Looking into her eyes, Sesshoumaru recognized a determination that he rarely came across.  It … excited him somehow.  But for now he would yield.

He took a few steps forward, and suddenly stood but a few inches from her.  Sometime during the course of their conversation, it had begun to snow lightly.  Carefully, as though afraid to scare her off, he reached up and brushed snowflakes off of her raven hair.

She took a step away and looked up at him, determination still glittering in her eyes.  "This way."  Then she turned, leading him toward the village.

Sesshoumaru spent three days with the woman, Kaede.  Watching her lazily as she tended her medicines during the day, and at night, showing her the most secret part of his heart, where the snowflakes drifted through his soul.  She tasted like fresh plums and the clean runoff of melting snow.

That alone he would never forget.

He left while she was asleep, bidding farewell to her soft curves as he brushed clawed fingers though her hair.  Walking away, he wondered if he should leave her alive when others might use her against him in the future.  In the end, he decided it didn't matter.  For, in a few years or a few months, this would fade from his memory.  He didn't care if she died tomorrow or lived well into old age.

Something about snowflakes always made him act strange.

B0b: …

J0rge: …

Sesshy: I can't believe she actually did it.


End file.
